Any cross-platform issues?

[bgleasondesign]

New to these forums, but wonder who has dealt with this issue: client uses PC, I'm on Mac. He's very concerned and insists that designers be using PC platform, too, with InDesign so he can print things in-house. I need ways to talk to him about why me being on a PC isn't necessary. But what issues DO come up?

What are issues folks have had to overcome? Fonts? Others? I've not been through this with Indd yet, only Quark and Pagemaker in past...

Thanks for any tips!

[AdobeAce]

Hi bgleasondesign,

A good amount of my InDesign training is cross-platform. I work on a Mac and about 33% of my clients are on PC.

You hit on the major cross-platform issue -- FONTS.

Other than that, I've not come across any cross-platform issues with InDesign. I've found that opening PC InDesign files on my Mac works better than converting Quark 4 layouts from my own Mac.

With the advent of OpenType (a new cross-platform type format developed by Adobe in partnership with MicroSoft), fonts should no longer be an issue. The same OpenType fonts that you use on your Mac should work on a PC (using the latest systems).

For more information about OpenType -- http://studio.adobe.com/us/type/main.jsp?xhtml=opentype/main

Hope this helps!

Ace

[G4pj]

Haven't seen any issues other than fonts. Opentype fonts are the best, they are cross platform, and don't have any cross-over issues.

If you're running OSX, you can install Windows true type fonts. If you use true types, know the source where they came from, web fonts have a habit of doing strange things when least expected, when this happens, and the font is used sparingly, a graphics is created instead of using live text.

In the case of type 1 fonts, there have been cases where I took a document to another platform, updated the fonts using type 1s on the machine, and having the type show up a bit differently.

In the event you don't have open type fonts for what you're needing to send, file > export and create a pdf file. Just make sure the fonts are embedded, so that they show up the way they are supposed to. Also make sure to preview the pdf file before sending it out. Sending a pdf file works best if there is no further editing for the document in question. No accidental changes.